Photoni.st

I could link to each article Cedric writes on his photoni.st blog, because they are all very good.

This last one, titled “Pretty Images Are Dead. Long Live Documentary Photography” is no exception. One of his conclusions within this whole “rise of AI” shit show (my expression) is, that documentary photography will become more relevant, because of its ability to capture authentic human experience.

I want to share two quotes from it, but you should definitely go ahead and read the post in full.

AI can’t know what your daily life looks like. Document it.

I couldn’t agree more. Documenting our life as a family has been the main focus of my photographic practice for many years and it is already paying off: The kids regularly refer to the books I print each year, to remember things and to look at places we visited or toys they used to play with. It will only become more valuable with time.

Social media photography, meanwhile, deserves its AI-induced death. The endless cycle of performative image-sharing was always hollow. If generating perfect content becomes effortless, perhaps we’ll finally abandon the pretense that curated feeds represent authentic life. The platforms built on artificial scarcity of beautiful images will collapse under artificial abundance.

Good riddance!